Two Doors Down
by Paradoxicality
Summary: The quiet suburbs where nothing happens. Except for the alien living with Mrs. Henderson at number 32. So what do you do with an alien on your doorstep?
1. Chapter 1

Doctor Who – Two Doors Down

The Doctor rapped his knuckles against the brown oak door. He smiled gleefully at Donna who exhaled heavily. After a few seconds he knocked once more, this time slightly more loudly.

"It was a cat. That's all; a cat."

"You don't get blue cats Donna. Well, not until 2054 when genetic splicing goes terribly wrong. Poor things. Anyway, it was definitely not a cat. It was about twice as big and glowing blue."

The door in front of them suddenly opened, revealing a middle-aged blonde lady, laughing at something happening further into her house. Music escaped from inside, and Donna could make out several balloons and the warming smell of cocktail sausages. The woman's face dropped in an instant at the sight of the tall, grinning man and the confused, disgruntled woman on her doorstep. The Doctor immediately butted in before she had time to speak.

"Hello there, I'm the Doctor, this is Donna, are you having a party?" He said, poking a head through, peering around in the most impolite of manners.

"I'm sorry, no." The woman said, ushering the Doctor's head out of the hallway and closing the door swiftly.

The Doctor stared for a while, slightly confused at what had gone on. As he seemed lost in his head, Donna took charge and rattled on the letterbox. The door once again opened and the woman rolled her eyes.

"What?" She said, staring at the Doctor, expecting him to take charge once more.

"We're here for the party," Donna stated, forthright "My friend, the Doctor, forgot to show our invite." Donna elbowed the Doctor who came to and quickly got out and flashed his psychic paper. The woman examined it for a while, before looking back at the two grinning faces in front of her.

"How do you know Anne?" The woman asked.

"Oh, Anne! Yeah we go way back. Us and Anne, we, uh, used to...meet...at the supermarket all the time. Yeah, every Thursday, was just plain weird you know." The Doctor ended his convoluted speech with a large grin.

The woman looked them up and down once more before opening the door wide.

"Come on then. Sorry for the confusion. I'm Jane. I suppose since you got an invite Anne's told you."

"...Told us what?" Donna asked, wiping her feet and looking around the modern house.

"Oh, you know, Donna," The Doctor shoved her jovially. "That thing...that Anne told us. That big thing." Donna stared at the Doctor for a while before catching on.

"Oh yeah! How could I forget? Well, technically I didn't forget, I'm just so aware of it that I don't even see it as a big thing anymore..." Donna petered off.

"Yeah, well, you know the rules. He's 'mingling' but," Jane leaned in. "I still don't trust him. It's those eyes." She said, pointing to her forehead. The Doctor and Donna smiled and nodded, still in complete bewilderment.

Jane guided them through the house, through the kitchen which was filled with random plates, half opened packets of party food, and a large cake. Eventually they reached the garden. It was a simple enough garden, with just a large expanse of grass, and a few flowers lining the sides. There were many people 'mingling'; at least thirty from what Donna could tell. But none of this really stood out to Donna or the Doctor. What did catch their eyes was the elderly woman walking hand in hand with a blue, squat alien.


	2. Chapter 2

"What is...what the...what..." Donna tried and failed to articulate her thoughts and she pointed at the strange being. The alien was no taller than a toddler, and seemed human enough in form, except for a large head with contained two pairs of eyes, one set on top of the other. It was completely bald, and simply had an ill-fitting vest hanging off of it.

"I'm going to say its alien. And not a cat." The Doctor gave Donna a smug smile.

"Why aren't they freaking out? It's all...alien, not from this Earth; they should be running around throwing chipolatas everywhere."

The Doctor stared at Donna in confusion before looking around at the other party guests.

"It is rather odd. Let's investigate." The Doctor dragged Donna across to a collection of three men, laughing and chattering with plates of half-eaten cheese and cucumber sandwiches and unwanted crisps. Donna couldn't remember the last time she'd tucked into a packet of cheese and onion, but resisted the urge to nab a few demeaning it slightly rude and rather odd.

"Hi there, I'm John Smith, this is Donna Noble, lovely party isn't it?" The Doctor said, bulldozing his way into the men's conversations. They stared at him in confusion, unable to reply.

"We were wondering if you've seen Anne and uh....oh what's his name...?" The Doctor did his best to look deep in thought, rubbing his temple and tapping Donna several times in mock need of assistance.

"You mean Garth?"

"Garth? His name's Garth?" Donna asked in amused surprise.

"Yes! Of course it is. Don't you remember?" The Doctor nudged Donna "She's so forgetful, in one ear, out the other. I'm sure she'll forget my name one day." The Doctor joked, leaning in slightly closer to the men.

"Could never forget your name, wa-"

"-Oh look they're just over there, how could we be so blind, eh?" The Doctor hastily butted in, once again dragging Donna off.

"So what now? We know his name, which doesn't help at all. I guess you know where he's from."

"Not really. Narrowed it down to five...six! Strelis! He could be from Strelis."

"You're no hel-" Donna was unable to complete her degrading remark since she'd walked into someone. A small, blue someone. Garth immediately turned around to look at Donna, and cocked his head as if examining her. Anne, who was by his side, noticed this and turned around as well.

"Oh, I'm so sorry umm...Garth." Donna said, her voice full of nervousness.

"Who are you, ma'am?" The being asked in an airy, ethereal voice.

"I'm Donna Noble, we uh..."

"You do not know me, ma'am? Mrs Henderson, these people are not aware of me." The blue alien tugged on the old woman's sleeve. She nodded morosely.

"It would seem so my friend. You know what to do."

And with that Anne dropped her friend's hand. Garth closed both sets of eyes slowly. The Doctor and Donna subconsciously began to step backwards.

"We mean no harm, please, let's talk." The Doctor said, raising his arms in the air as a sign of surrender.

But Garth's eyes remained closed. And slowly the Doctor and Donna watched as his blue glow changed to an aqua, then to a light green. At which point Garth opened all four eyes at a rapid speed. And the last thing Donna remembered was Garth jumping towards her, before her world turned black.


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor slowly opened his eyes, hastily moving a hand in front of his face to cover the glare. He squinted, and blinked several times, trying to orientate himself and work out where he was and how he'd come to be here. There was a strange grunting noise from his side and the Doctor looked across to see Donna, her head flopped backwards and a small amount of spittle dripping out of her mouth. He gave her a friendly nudge.

"Wha—what. What's going on? Where are we?" She said, jolting awake and looking around her. They seemed to be sitting on a park bench, a gravel path winding past them, and grass rolling off into all directions.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." The Doctor seemed to be gripping his forehead tightly with his hand.

"We...were going to my house weren't we?" Donna said, looking up for confirmation.

"Hang on...aha!" Donna jumped in surprise as the Doctor yelled a little too loudly. "It's a memory lock; someone's placed a little barrier around some of our memories. Not particularly strong either." The Doctor closed his eyes and looked to be in deep concentration.

Donna still had no idea what was going on. She remembered being in the TARDIS, asking to drop back home to see her mum and granddad and then...nothing. But she knew something was there, she just couldn't get to it, as if the neurons inside her head were being put on a diverted course.

"There we go." The Doctor said after a while, rubbing his head and smiling at Donna.

"Well...what happened?"

"Do you remember that I landed off course, about a mile from your house?" Donna shook her head.

"That we decided to walk and whilst we went down an alley I thought I saw an alien through a gap in the fence, you said it was probably a cat, I said we should investigate, and you moaned?" Donna looked away in thought.

"Then we went to someone's house party, and saw this little blue thing walking hand in hand with an old woman."

"Garth!" Donna yelled at the top of her voice. "How could I forget that? So I presume he put some sort of memory wipe on us?"

"Well, I think he tried, but it doesn't seem he had enough energy to do a full wipe. I guess my magnificent mind was too much for him." The Doctor smiled broadly at the increase to his ego.

Donna stood up, dusting down her dress. "I presume we can't have gone far. I think my mum took me here once as a kid, so we're still in the area."

"I say we go back and try again." The Doctor said, walking off towards a large black entrance gate.

"And get memory 'locked' and dumped in the park again?"

"Let's wait until night this time."Donna stared at the Doctor for a while, waiting for the punch line.

"Wait, you're serious? You're suggesting we break in to the old woman's house?"

"Well, not totally break in. If I'm right, I think Garth is from Tar, judging by the blue glow, ability to mind alter and the change in colour. So, he won't need to sleep. **So**, we should be able to talk to him in private."

"He can mind alter now, not just mildly make us forget? As in he could burn up our brains if we got in the way."

"That's the thing Donna, why didn't he? Why isn't he going on some murderous rampage across Earth? Not that Dars would, but if you get stranded on an alien planet you don't stick around with some elderly lady unless you have a damn good reason."

"Hang on, they're Dars from Tar. Tar Dars?" Donna said, giggling to herself. The Doctor stared at her before rolling his eyes.

They had managed to take a shortcut back to the TARDIS, which was parked in a random back alley, not too far from Anne's house. The Doctor opened the door and held it for Donna.

"Go get some rest Miss Noble. We're on the night shift."


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor leant against the TARDIS, throwing and catching his sonic screwdriver several times out of boredom. A distant streetlight provided just enough illumination to see what was going on, but otherwise he was surrounded by pitch blackness. Donna soon stumbled out of the TARDIS, rubbing her eyes.

"How long was I out?" She said, stretching out her arms.

"Well, by Earth time it was about...12 hours. But of course, time is relative inside the TARDIS and-"

"-Yeah, whatever, no science mumbo jumbo when I'm barely conscious thank you. So what's the plan?"

"Follow me." The Doctor announced, striding off and leaving Donna to lazily follow.

Before Donna had time to intervene, complain, or stop him, the Doctor was holding down the doorbell on Anne's door, and knocking incredibly loudly.

"You do know it's like...1 a.m. People are asleep, and Anne hardly looked like a spring chicken, waking her up can do no good." Donna whispered, hastily looking around the dimly lit streets.

"Wait for it..." The Doctor said, removing his finger from the doorbell and stepping back slightly. The letterbox slowly opened inwards and the blue glow of Garth seeped outwards.

"Who is there, may I ask?" Garth asked sheepishly.

"Garth it's me, uh...ummm...Tim." The Doctor quickly responded, drawing out a random name from the top of his head.

"Mr Walton? Is there something the matter, sir?" Garth purred, still only slightly holding the letterbox open.

"I have something to show you." The Doctor slightly raised his intonation at the end of the sentence, seeming to both tell and ask Garth.

Donna immediately mouthed _"Really?"_ in slight disbelief that such a ploy could ever work. And yet it did. The door slowly opened, and almost at an identical speed the Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver above his head. Donna noted the light had gone on but couldn't make out the familiar whine. Garth had peered round the door by now, and was staring, hypnotically, at the glowing instrument.

"We want to talk." The Doctor stated. Garth nodded, and opened the door fully for them. Donna stared at the two in utter confusion.

"What is going on?" She whispered.

"I programmed the sonic on the Dar wavelength, simple mind control."

"Mind control? Bit much isn't it?" Donna said, wiping her feet on the mat and realising the only light around them was the glow coming from Garth.

"Oh it's nothing. Got us in didn't it?" The Doctor said, his arm still dangling in the air, leading Garth like the Pied Piper into the kitchen. They stood around the kitchen table, Garth staring at the screwdriver, the Doctor staring at Garth, and Donna staring at the both of them.

"Put the damn thing down." Donna said at last, dragging the Doctor's sleeve down with great force.

Garth's four unblinking eyes still followed the screwdriver, even when the Doctor placed it back into his pocket. And then with one blink, he came to, and stared at the two, annoying strangers in his house. The Doctor gave a small wave.

Dars were polite beings, seeing anything less than utmost courtesy and manners being extremely disrespectful. They failed to believe evil could run through a being, and would give everyone a second chance no matter the situation. But Garth had seen red. Literally. The crimson glow filled the kitchen, as cutlery, plates, and the table itself began to shake ever so slightly. Donna immediately moved close to the Doctor who hugged her tightly.

"Doctor, stop him." She managed, her voice wavering with every syllable.

And as the Doctor moved his view away from Donna, he felt a burning hand press into his forehead.


	5. Chapter 5

Garth flew across the room, his body hitting the back wall like a rag-doll. The Doctor stroked his burning forehead, before Donna and he immediately ran across the room to the curled up Dar in the corner.

"What the hell just happened?" Donna asked, observing Garth as he radiated a light purple during his transition back to his standard blue.

"He tried to burn my mind but," Garth opened his eyes and slowly moved all his limbs, as if reactivating "You're not feeling too great, are you Garth?"

"Ma'am, sir, I will ask you again to please leave." The disorientated alien announced, stretching out a shaking finger towards Donna's head. She instinctively shuffled backwards, but the Doctor put a hand on her shoulder to tell her that there was no need.

"Garth you're too weak. When I worked out you were a Dar I knew something was up - oxygen doesn't sit well with your species. Any other day you wouldn't have had any problems burning up both of our brains with a single touch. And yet today my mind managed to repel you."

Garth's face was solemn, and he propped himself up against the wall.

"How did you get here? I mean, if this planet's poisonous, why come?" Donna asked, her voice full of sorrow for the being.

"Our species set up a mass excursion programme in the hope of finding other habitable planets. We were aware of a planet in this galaxy that would be suitable."

"Venus?" The Doctor asked.

"Sol II, yes. Unfortunately the transmitter was programmed incorrectly and I arrived here. I landed in the recreational grounds not too far from here. Mrs. Henderson was sat on the bench and took me in."

"And she wasn't freaked out by some giant smurf landing from nowhere?" Donna asked sarcastically. The Doctor gave her a frown. "What? He did try to kill you."

"Mrs. Henderson was OK. She...had her reasons."

"Why are you still here though? Can't your friends zap you back home?" Donna said, her face full of confusion.

"I...lost my communicator." Garth's multiple eyes darted around the room.

"Or..." The Doctor pushed.

"It is fair to say I have become fond of this planet and its inhabitants. Mrs. Henderson has treated me with care, more so than I had ever experienced previously."

"But you're dying," The Doctor said forthright.

Donna's ears pricked up as she heard a loud click behind them. She swivelled her head to see an elderly lady, dressed in a pink nightgown, pointing a shotgun at them. The Doctor and Donna immediately put their hands up.

"Woah, woah, we're not doing anything. Garth, please, tell her." Donna said, looking down at the slightly more energised alien. After what seemed like far too long he nodded at Anne.

"They were leaving, ma'am. They meant no harm."

"You dare tell a soul, and I won't be so lenient." Donna struggled to comprehend these words coming from a heavily armed elderly lady.

The Doctor and Donna, with their arms still high up, left through the front door, sighing heavily after it shut abruptly behind them.

"Far too many grannies around with 'Winchesters' nowadays." The Doctor said. Donna stared at him in utter confusion.

"So...what do we do?" Donna asked as they made their way back to the TARDIS.

"The way I see it we have two options- leave him or take him back home, more than likely against his will."

"Three options," Donna corrected. The Doctor stared at her quizzically, with a subtle sense of not liking being outwitted. "There's always UNIT." The Doctor's face sank.

"As much as I've relied on UNIT on several occasions before they're not going to look after an alien too well."

"Why not? I mean, there's Martha. She's seen this stuff before, she'd make sure they did all they could, invented some breathing...thing or something. You've got to give them a try."

"I think we should convince him to go home. It's the best for everyone." The Doctor said sternly, somewhat ignoring Donna. She gave him an icy stare.

They had reached the TARDIS by now, and the Doctor slowly unlocked the door, shrouded in utter silence. Donna stood with her arms crossed, looking everywhere but at the Doctor. When the door clicked open Donna immediately stormed in, pushing the Doctor out of the way.

"This is going to be a fun few days." He sighed, entering slowly after her.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning Donna casually strode past the Doctor who was fiddling at the TARDIS console. He looked up, perhaps expecting some sort of apology, but instead she simply headed down the ramp.

"Hang on, where you going?"

"Home," Donna said without turning around "And then to UNIT."

"Donna, I've told you, they can do no good. There's no point."

"Why is it that you can't let me have one thing? You can't let me be right for once? You sit up there on your Time Lord pedestal, looking down at us, spewing out unnecessary information just because you can. But if anyone else comes along and has a better idea than you, you can't accept it. Ignorant, that's what you are." Donna yelled.

"Go to UNIT then, be let down, I'll go check out Tar." The Doctor said, his eyes fully on the controls, already hitting buttons before Donna had left the TARDIS.

"Fine!" Donna shouted, banging the TARDIS door shut behind her as much as its' controls would allow.

"Fine!" The Doctor grunted back, yanking another control.

Donna looked behind her, with leaves blowing away in all directions as the TARDIS dematerialised. She huffed loudly and marched off down the road.

Donna had been walking for twenty minutes when she arrived home. She'd been thinking over her argument with the Doctor, and was torn between apologizing for being stubborn and arguing a bit more. She decided on the latter because that was more fun.

When she arrived home she was unsure whether to knock or not. It was her house but it didn't feel that way anymore. In the end she decided to let herself in. She was immediately met by her granddad who was in the hallway.

"Donna!" He yelled, hugging her and dancing a little.

"Alright granddad. Where's mum?"

"She's out there making lunch," Wilf pointed towards the kitchen "How are you my love? Are you enjoying yourself with that Doctor?"

"It's been great granddad, you can't imagine some of the stuff I've seen." She said with a large smile.

"Oh, here she is, the great traveller returns." Sylvia said, looking Donna up and down. She gave her a hug, perhaps with less gusto than Wilf's.

"So where's your Doctor man? If you two are around it normally means there's some sort of trouble." Sylvia said, rolling her eyes.

"He's just...busy right now."

"Are there aliens again Donna? We showed the last lot a thing or too." Wilf said, shaking his fist at the sky.

"No, don't worry, no danger." Donna reassured.

"What you back for then?" Sylvia asked suspiciously.

"I just wanted to borrow the car. You got the keys?"

"Oh, not again missie. First I have to rifle through garbage to get the keys, and then I have to take it in to get the window repaired after having to smash it to save your granddad. £300 that cost. And I don't see you paying for a penny of it, seeing as 'travelling' doesn't pay for the bills."

"You done?" Donna asked casually. Sylvia realised she didn't stand a chance so threw Donna the keys.

"Don't blow it up." Sylvia shouted as Donna left, giving her granddad a wave as she did.

Donna clicked open the car doors and got in, sighing as she pulled the door closed. She could roughly remember the route to UNIT HQ, and hoped they remembered her enough to let her in. Her eyes wondered to the passenger seat. The Doctor should be there. Travelling alone was an odd experience.


	7. Chapter 7

Travelling alone was an odd experience for the Doctor. Sure, he'd done it frequently before, but knowing that his companion was out there, willingly adventuring on her own, whilst he'd careered the TARDIS into hyperspace without even saying goodbye didn't feel right. 'Don't go to bed on an argument' came to mind. The TARDIS seemed particularly loud, in part due to the lack of laughter and frequent shouting, but it also seemed as if the TARDIS sensed his loneliness and was making up for it with loud screeches and groans. As it came to a rest, it let out one last moan as a goodbye before permanently leaving the Doctor in an empty silence. The Doctor let out a sigh before walking down the ramp.

He was greeted outside by a burning glare, and simultaneously threw on a pair of sunglasses. The glare was being radiated by hundreds of glowing blue creatures, walking to and fro in a very human nature. Their buildings were nothing special, large huts at best, and the light green waves of the vast ocean bobbed gently off in the horizon. The Doctor loved this planet; sure, there was nothing amazingly interesting or exciting to find, but the serene colours soothed the Doctor on so many levels, made all the stresses and heartaches numb ever so slightly.

"Hi, visiting Time Lord, any idea where I can find your tourist centre or...travel agents or...intergalactic space officer?" The Doctor asked, sticking out a hand before realising that wasn't the done thing.

"Good day sir. I think what you are looking for is ICO- our Intergalactic Communications Organisation. You will find them down this track, the closest building to the ocean." The being pointed down the hilly, dirt track.

"Ah, yeah, cheers. Have a nice...life." The Doctor gave an uneasy wave before jogging down the incline and into a slightly larger, brown hut.

The Doctor expected to find a bustling centre of communications between a range of races but instead found a lone Dar leafing through some files on a desk. He looked up as the Doctor entered and seemed astounded, dropping his files and running up to him, placing a hand to the Doctor's head.

"Good day traveller. It's been...well far too long since we've had any sort of travellers in this land. Where are you from sir?" The Dar lowered his hand and stared directly at the Doctor.

"Well, uh, a planet called Gallifrey. It's...it's gone now but, uh, anyway, I just wondered if you'd lost anyone? I'm led to believe one of your species crashed on to a planet called Earth on an excursion thing."

"Unless you've travelled in time," The Dar let out a laugh but the Doctor remained inquisitive "Then that would be impossible, sir. We hardly have the capabilities to receive visitors let alone travel ourselves."

The Doctor stared at the blue being unblinkingly, and soon realised his one fatal mistake; never believe an alien telling a 'crash landed' story.


	8. Chapter 8

Donna pulled up to an iron gate in front of a disturbingly large building. Guards lined the outside walls, moving every now and again and not taking too kindly to Donna turning the radio up whilst she waited for someone to let her in. A guard soon came over, still maintaining a tight grip of his gun, and Donna rolled down her window.

"Can I help?" He asked sternly.

"I wondered if I could talk to Martha. Dr. Martha Jones," Donna leaned out of the window, and whispered "I'm a, uh, friend of the Doctor." She gave a sly wink.

The guard stared at her blankly. "You're a friend of Martha Jones?" He asked in confusion.

"No! Well, sort of, don't really know her that well. I mean THE Doctor. UNIT's 'special friend'" Donna air quoted and nudged as much as she could but nothing seemed to be getting past the blood red beret.

"I'm going to have to ask you to turn around madam. It appears you're lost. There's a hospital just of Kings' Street down there." The guard pointed down a road in the opposite direction, and seemingly stepped back to give Donna room to reverse. But, of course, she didn't. Instead Donna sighed heavily, opened the car door as violently as she could in hope of hitting the guard, and stared the half-wit directly in his blank eyes.

"Look here Brigadoon," Donna yelled, poking the guard in his bulletproof chest plate "We both know exactly what I'm talking about. You UNIT lot can be as naive as you want with the general populous but I've been dragged across the universe and nearly died who knows how many times in the last few months and I would've thought that would earn me at least a smidgen of respect from an idiot such as yourself." Donna breathed and stared into the guard's petrified eyes, who could only manage an elongated "Um".

"Donna?"

Donna twisted around and saw a familiar figure striding towards her. Martha Jones. She was in a lab coat, and was carrying a few loose files and folders under her arms. Donna preferred seeing Martha out of her military garb. It made her feel so much more human. Donna gave a warm smile when Martha was a few metres away and Martha immediately threw her arms open as the two hugged.

"Donna it's great to see you! Where's, uh, you know who? I'm going to guess this visit has got something to do with him."

"Hasn't everything?" Donna sighed "He's out doing some investigating of some kind. Got another alien problem."

"Something we should know about?" Martha asked, already looking slightly on edge.

"Well, sort of. Nothing of massive world-ending concern, we just found an alien living in a house. I thought you guys might want to take him and, you know, look after him." Donna looked at Martha hopefully who immediately looked away.

"Oh, Donna, I wouldn't think that's best. We're better at...stopping aliens rather than rehabilitating them. Seems a bit odd that the Doctor would suggest that; he's not UNIT's biggest fan."

"Yeah, well, it was more my idea. We had differing opinions on what to do with the over-grown smurf." Donna rolled her eyes.

"He gets like that," Martha smiled and Donna nodded solemnly. "The trouble is more often than not he knows what's best."

Donna sighed as an inevitable apology reared its ugly head on the horizon.


	9. Chapter 9

_Writer's Note: Sorry this has been so long in the making folks. Been rushed off my feet lately but thought I should at least get it finished before the new series. Thanks for all the lovely feedback and subscriptions, it really makes this stuff worthwhile. Also interested to hear whether you'd prefer more Tenth Doc+ Donna stuff or move on to Eleventh Doc+ Amy to keep with the times. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these last few chapters, and be sure to enjoy the new series. Thanks!_

Donna strode down the alleyway. She dared not look up because she could make out the calming whirr of the TARDIS at rest just ahead, and that naturally meant he was back. She came to a stop roughly a few feet in front of the Doctor and stared at his dirtied converse trainers for a few seconds, before raising her head and looking everywhere but his face.

"Came back then?" Donna said, nonchalant.

"Had to come back. Accidentally forgot my best friend." Donna looked up and gave a reassured smile.

"Fine, I'll say it, I'm sorry, I was wrong, bla bla etc etc." Donna gushed at a rapid pace.

"You were wrong. But so was I. In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone believing that Dars' mistruths is wrong."

"Why, what's up?"

"Turns out no Dars have left Tar ever. Too primitive, I should've known really."

"So...is he even a Dar?"

"That's what we need to go find out." The Doctor said, taking Donna's arm and leading her back down the alley.


	10. Chapter 10

Sensing haste was key, and rather than banging on the oak door, the Doctor instead opted for plunging his finger at the doorbell. A dainty tune played out in the hallway but naturally to no answer. The Doctor sighed heavily. "If you wouldn't mind." The Doctor branched out an arm towards the door. Donna smiled and nodded. "Why thank you Mr. Doctor." Donna half curtsied, before violently and speedily raising a leg to the door and kicking it open. "I bet it wasn't even locked." Donna noted, before the two of them entered the house. There was a strange, cold feeling to the hallway, and everything felt empty and hollow. A blue mist seemed to be seeping out from under the closed living room door. "That's never good." The Doctor said, taking the lead and swinging the door open.

Mrs Henderson was slumped on the sofa, her head against her chest and an arm frozen in the arm, a frail finger pointing in the direction of a large blue alien hunched over her. He immediately looked up with both pairs of eyes blanched a poisonous yellow colour. Garth stared at Donna and the Doctor before scuttling on to all fours, his already gangly fingers slightly increasing in size, as he frantically moved around the room, perfectly mimicking the patterns of your average spider.

"I told you he was from Strelis." The Doctor said as an aside. Donna nodded sarcastically, as her eyes followed the scuttling alien. The Doctor moved towards Mrs Henderson and felt her neck. He exhaled heavily from his nose. "Is she...-"

"Yup," The Doctor confirmed Donna's fears. "He's in his feeding period. No doubt he's been doing this for months, but now he's sucked the last bit of life out of her."

"Well, what do we do? And why aren't we arguing with him or something? I like shouting at the bad guys."

"He can't hear us. He's basically purely instinctual at the moment; feeding on what he can, fight or flight if needs be. No point talking to his rational side. If he even has one."

Garth paused for a moment, turned his head slowly, and slowly approached the Doctor. Donna became defensive but the Doctor held her back, and stared closely at the creature. The two locked eyes.

"He at least recognises I'm not human. Not sure what to make of me. Like if you wandered into the forest and found a mushroom, for all you know it could kill you instantly."

Garth stopped moving his head and retreated slightly, letting out a metallic growl as he did so.

"That's right. Time Lord through and through. Ha!" The Doctor declared triumphantly.

"Doesn't really help with what we're meant to do with him."

"Let's just leave him." Donna stared at the Doctor, waiting for the punch line, but the Doctor had already begun to leave the room.

"Wait, wait, you're serious? We leave a murdering alien living in a small town with clueless people."

"Correct," The Doctor pushed open the front door and strode down the path. "It's fully drained the life force from someone and so fulfilled its needs. It's not a threat more than a common housefly Miss Noble."

"Huh," Donna nodded slowly but remained in thought. "If you say so."

"I do. We best be off." The Doctor remarked, hastily heading towards the TARDIS.

Donna stared at the Doctor for a while before casually asking "You wouldn't mind if I used the screwdriver to...check the weather, would you?"

"I don't see why not." The Doctor passed her the sonic screwdriver without a second thought.

Donna ran her nails over the surface, feeling as if she was changing some kind of setting, before squarely pointing the device at the Doctor and blasting out a strong sonic ray. The violent sound crashed around the empty street, sending off a fair few car alarms and causing a nearby streetlight to flicker before exploding altogether. The Doctor stared at Donna, his eyes radiating a vivid blue before returning to their muddy brown. He staggered slightly, rubbing his temple and staring at Donna out of one eye.

"No need for thanks. All in a day's work." Donna exclaimed, flicking the screwdriver in her hands before dropping it and giving it back to the Doctor apologetically.

"Damn Strelian mind puppetry. How did you know?"

"Well to start with I know you well enough to tell when you're acting out of character. And you'd never willingly give me that thing."

"I think you can see why," The Doctor said, pointing at the broken glass on the floor. "I can't afford to pay all these fines."

"Don't we have a little alien problem to be dealing with first?" Donna asked.

"It doesn't look like it anymore." The Doctor said, pointing towards the sky. Donna turned around to see a small, smoking grey ship bobbing in the air before leaving the atmosphere.

"Didn't want to stay and fight, huh? Typical. Do we go after him?"

"I doubt he'll get far. Barely leave the galaxy no doubt. He'll meet his end soon enough," The Doctor stared at the sky for a while before waking from his daydream. "Back to the TARDIS then? Promise I'm not being mind controlled this time." The Doctor gave a wry smile.

"I believe you. I guess we can't solve all of the world's problems eh." Donna sighed and kicked a stone at her feet.

"I'm sure we can solve a few of the universe's though." The Doctor gave a grin and placed an arm around Donna. The two walked down the street, the fiery sun edging below the industrial skyline in front of them. Earth felt so foreign to Donna now, so alien. And yet that one arm around her shoulder made her feel right at home.


End file.
